I See through Everything

Chapter 257: Chapter 140: Hope

January passed.

The festive spirit of the New Year grew thick in the February air.

The cannery at the Magong Town fishing port had been relocated to the Yandun Mountain Fish Ball Factory. However, the original cannery’s location was excellent. Last year, the company bought the building from the landlord and converted it into a specialty store.

Inside the specialty store, in addition to regular canned eel, unagi kabayaki retort pouches, and various frozen fish balls, they also sold live eels and premium Egyptian Catfish. Furthermore, they offered strawberries, tomatoes, Ginseng Fruit, and White Truffles.

At the pier’s seafood market just outside the store’s entrance, basket after basket of freshly landed Spanish mackerel, crabs, Xia Gu, prawns, and blue mackerel attracted many local customers.

"How much for this white eel?"

Xiaoli, who was in the middle of bagging tomatoes for another customer, quickly turned his head. He smiled at the man and said, "Sir, the premium white eels are forty-five a catty."

"Premium?" the bald, middle-aged man asked, scooping up a struggling white eel with a hand net. In the Lingnan and Min Nan regions, eels were also known by other names.

Xiaoli quickly explained, "They’re specially farmed, so they don’t have that muddy taste."

"Really?" The bald man was skeptical.

Xiaoli guessed at once that the man was a migrant worker who had just come home for the holidays. He smiled and asked, "Sir, you just got back in town, didn’t you?"

"Yeah! I just got back from the Xiangjiang River. I can’t believe how much my hometown has changed," the bald man said with feeling.

"Here, sir, have a taste." Xiaoli took a box of samples from a heated display case to the side.

He took the chopsticks and picked up a piece of eel, steamed with shredded ginger. After one bite, his eyes lit up. "Huh? You’re right, there’s no muddy taste. Are these the same eels as the ones in the tank?"

"Of course, sir. Our company is based right here. If you get it home and it tastes muddy, just bring it back. We’ll give you a full refund," Xiaoli guaranteed.

"I’ll take one."

"How big of one, sir?"

"Something over two catties will be fine."

"Okay. Should I kill and gut it for you?"

"No, that’s alright." The bald man waved his hand and took the bag with the wriggling eel inside. He then bought a box of strawberries to go as well.

He had just stepped out of the store.

"Huh? Terry?"

The bald, middle-aged man turned his head toward a tricycle on the other side of the pier. He saw it was his older cousin, Lin Taishun. A smile on his face, he walked over. "Brother Shun, you here to buy fish?"

Lin Taishun heaved a large bag of iced Spanish mackerel into the cargo bed of his tricycle. After wiping his hands, he took out a pack of Furongwang cigarettes, pulled out two, and handed one to the bald man, Lin Talley. He lit his own and took a long drag. "Phew... When did you get back?"

"Just got back. On the nine o’clock high-speed train last night." Lin Talley lit his cigarette and leaned against the tricycle’s side panel, looking across at the Hailufeng Specialty Store.

"So early this year?"

"Things are slow. Business is tough over on the Xiangjiang River."

"What’d you buy?"

"From that store across the way. A white eel and a box of strawberries." Lin Talley glanced at the bag of Spanish mackerel, which had to be at least thirty catties. "You bought so much mackerel. Are you making fish balls with all of it?"

Lin Taishun flicked his cigarette ash. "Yeah!" he said with a smile. "But fifteen catties are for our big brother."

"How’s his health?"

"He’s doing great. He raised Egyptian Fish last year and made tens of thousands. So that kid, Yongqiang, can take it a little easier this year."

Lin Talley raised an eyebrow. "That kid Yongqiang still isn’t married? He’s already twenty-seven. You and your wife should help set him up."

"Hahaha, you don’t need to tell me! My wife is already on it, introducing him to people. But he says he wants to wait a couple of years to fix up the house first. Otherwise, he’s worried any girl who sees it will just turn around and walk away."

"How much is he short for the repairs? I’ll cover it," Lin Talley offered.

"You know what our big brother is like; he’d never accept it." Lin Taishun took another drag from his cigarette. "Phew... But don’t you worry. Their two-mu fishpond should bring in another 120,000 this year. Add that to what Yongqiang makes at the construction site and their savings, and they can pull together about 200,000. That should be enough for the renovations."

Lin Talley shook his head. "What are you talking about? What good is 200,000? In my opinion, he shouldn’t even bother with repairs. He should just tear it down and rebuild. I’ll lend him 200,000—that’s enough to build a three-story house. He can use his 200,000 for the renovations."

"Then you go and convince him," Lin Taishun said with a look of resignation.

"Leave it to me. He needs to change that penny-pinching personality of his. Otherwise, even when he gets a daughter-in-law, they’re bound to have conflicts. Times have changed." Lin Talley dropped his cigarette butt and ground it out with his shoe.

"In that case, why not just build a new house somewhere else instead of tearing down the old one?" Lin Taishun suggested. "I doubt our big brother and his daughter-in-law would get along anyway. It’d be better for them to live separately."

Hearing this, Lin Talley nodded. "That’s one way to do it. Oh, right, I bought a plot of land for a house a while back, not far from his place. I’m not using it anyway, so they can just build on that!"

"As long as you’re willing to part with it. But you’d better explain it clearly to your wife, to avoid any trouble down the line," Lin Taishun reminded him.

"Don’t worry, Brother Shun! She has no idea how many plots I have on the mainland. As long as you don’t say anything, she’ll never know."

"Good, then."

"By the way, Brother Shun, what have you been up to lately?"

"Me?" Lin Taishun said with a laugh. "I’m growing durians for the Hailufeng Company."

"What?" Lin Talley rubbed his big, bald head, completely baffled. "Did I hear you right? Growing durians? Are you going to Qiongzhou to do it?"

"It’s right here, on Yandun Mountain, just east of our village. Didn’t you see it on your way back?"

Lin Talley was at a loss for words. "I got back at night! It was pitch-black, how could I see anything? And this morning, I came to the pier from the south road."

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